It’s weird. Being in the wrestling business has given me Triple H’s perspective. Like, I get it. And nothing Bryan’s saying or standing up for seems like something I can fully understand or agree with. I just love him as a wrestler and a performer (way, way more than Triple H) so my devotions are all skewed.

@Brandon this was the scenario with me between Rock and Punk last year. Then again, my reasons are different because Rock was (and still is, admittedly) my all-time favorite wrestler growing up, although if not Rock, Punk would be #1.

Plus Punk was freaking killer during their rivalry while Rock was just Rock, so that tore me apart for a while.

Bryan is standing up for the fact that he is the best wrestler on the roster who works hard and has ate a lot of shit from everyone. Ever since he stepped foot in the company back in his NXT days he’s been shitted on, made fun of and not treated seriously. He has the audactiy to actually do his job, win matches and he gets punished for it because he doesn’t fit the typical mold of a WWE superstar.

So I’m not sure how Bryan’s beef isn’t understandable or not legit The guy has been attacked and screwed over multiple times when he’s won matches so he has every right to be pissed off, angry and to finally stir shit up until he gets the match that he deserves. I don’t see how he’s coming off as whiny at all, he used the fans to get what he wanted and did it in an over the top manner by “hijacking” the show since The Authority doesn’t care about the will of the people and the Authority doesn’t really care talent or hard work. Bryan has every right to be defiant.

And him yelling at Stephanie, I liked, he was being defiant to the end and Stephanie has always been about having bigger balls than most men. He was violently getting beat down, at that point he doesn’t need to show respect to his adversaries. It’s no different than HBK slapping the shit out of Taker right before his career ends or Kevin Steen spitting at Super Dragon while handcuffed and defenseless and he knows Dragon is about to murder death kill him with an Psycho Driver on the thumbtacks.

So…in line with what Brandon was saying about Trips and the ‘Mania main event…who sees D-Bry beating HHH and earning his spot in the title match only to have HHH say “Yeah, good for you and all, but I’m putting myself in the match, too, because fuck you.”?

It would be kind of awesome, actually, if Bryan beats Hunter immediately (with a small package, of course), then goes to the main event and wins.

Then, at Extreme Rules, Triple H can put himself in a match with Bryan– to get the title off of him, and to get revenge for being embarrassed at Mania. Then the two of them can have a nice long, violent, no-DQ match that results in Bryan caving in Hunter’s skull.

I want Wrestlemania to end with HHH standing over Daniel Bryan holding both belts and laughing like Hank Scorpio. Half for the sheer audacity to go in that direction, and half for the internet’s reaction.

Counterpoint: crowds continue to chant “CM PUNK!” for the same reason they cheered for Stone Cold Steve Austin: he’s sticking it to authority the way we all wish we could. Only in Punk’s case, it’s not a storyline. When Austin had his run, we all wanted to be the guy who could flip off (and beat up) his boss. And now we all wish we could be the guy who could ask the boss for anything in the world, get it, ask for more, and have the independence and the guts to say “screw it” and go home if we didn’t get it. So no, CM Punk isn’t doing anything to me. CM Punk doesn’t even know me. CM Punk is saying Eff You, I Don’t Need This to his old boss, and you’re damn right I’m going to applaud him for it.

It’s really hard to want to root for Punk on this one, though. I mean, yeah, I like the guy (as his CM Punk character) but where would any of us be as fans if all the guys who felt they weren’t getting the proper amount of respect from the WWE front office just up and quit? We’d be saying goodbye to probably 80% of the roster.

as someone who spent $250 on a ticket to a show I thought would feature CM Punk, I gotta agree. He’s doing a lot to me. CM Punk isn’t saying “eff you, I don’t need this.”
He’s saying “I want to be at the top match at WrestleMania even though I’m not the top baby face in the company.” He didn’t get his way, so he left, literally 2 months after 2 million people or however many WWE will say bought their tickets to WM. CM Punk isn’t sticking it to Vince because Vince already sold his tickets and he’s going to make a shitload of money for WM anyway. But as someone who’s never seen CM Punk live, I feel all types of pissed by Punk’s actions.

Yeah, I really don’t understand a lot of the vitriol toward Punk that I’ve read online. He doesn’t owe the fans anything. Someone mentioned above that people have bought tickets for shows, assuming they’d see Punk, but that’s just the way it goes. Brandon thought he’d get to see a sweet Bryan-Sheamus match at Mania 28, too.

Some people view him as a quitter for not fulfilling his contract, but that’s WWE’s concern, not the fans’. I don’t know the specifics of his contract, any more than I know the reason(s) he left.

Was he promised the Mania main event, and then had it taken away when Batista came back? Was he tired of Creative having nothing for him? Was he not looking forward to putting EVERYONE over until his contract was up? Or did he just not see losing to HHH as a “prestigious” Mania spot?

Who knows. If he just didn’t like his spot, it *is* kind of immature to just decide he’s not going to show up anymore. But, that’s the kind of guy he is, I guess. A lot of wrestlers (past and current) are probably really shitty people.

@DocZeus I’ve been yearning for Corporate Punk since the pipebomb. Just imagine it; clean-cut, smart hair, no piercing, fresh suit, giving it a Bo Dallas smile – it’d be the ultimate heel turn for Punk’s character

Punk is entitled to do what he wishes, wwe is physically abusive and mentally abusive, he came from a fucked up home as it was, he has had enough, end of, and he doesn’t owe anybody anything and it says more about people who hold him in contempt for walking away than it does about him.

I really enjoyed Christian’s commentary, because it was great, desperate heel commentary, but I wouldn’t call him “right about everything” because he flat-out accused 24-time champion JBL of never doing anything in the ring. I mean, it works because Christian’s SUPPOSED to be a smarmy dick right now, but that was the line that clued me into his heel-ness; that “99% right but 1% just a shit about it” nature.

Didn’t watch the whole show, but when the crowd chanted for Punk during Triple H’s monologue, it was right after HHH faux complementing Bryan for “not taking his ball and going home” despite the Authority dumping all their crap on him. To me the crowd, which mostly sucked allnight, felt like Triple H was taking a veiled shot at Punk (maybe he was) and responded to that…

Needless sexism aside, I still think it’s pretty legitimate to root for Daniel Bryan simply because he’s the best wrestler on the show whose greatness is being “marginalized” because The Authority doesn’t “want” him around for specious reasons.

In the world of the WWE, he’s being “oppressed” or “marginalized” despite being the OBVIOUS best wrestler on the show – kayfabe or otherwise – because he doesn’t look like John Cena or Triple H. They will sure as shit PROFIT off his popularity but they aren’t going to let him reap the rewards and accolades himself. That’s the easiest thing to root for in the world. It really doesn’t matter if he’s sarcastic whiner because the other side is so, so, so, so corrupt. That’s life.

They generally edit unprotected chair shots because they’re against policy and violate their ratings scheme. Maybe this one just “looked too real” or something. It was pretty well (if obviously) set up.

Brandon what was the crowd like for the Shield? Because on my teevee it was CRICKETS. No pop whatsoever. Was WWE messing with the sound again? Were people just relieved that Lawler didn’t die in the ring?

I still think it would have been amazing to skip that segment with Kane and have the Shield’s face turn to come during Bryan’s beatdown…

I might argue he was slightly protected by the fact it was a Triple Threat match. But still, yeah, he lost the match cleanly. I don’t mean to say it’s never happened. I’m just looking at his recent matches with Lesnar, where it took everything plus the kitchen sink to keep HHH down, and the Mania 27 match, where *Taker* was the one who left on a stretcher.

Parroting the WWE corporate talking point that CM Punk is a “guy who legit does not give a dog’s shit about [the WWE Universe], so he’s not around” is somewhat embarrassing for a writer of your caliber.

No one knows anything about why he left (or is at least not saying anything in public). It just sounds like you are using motivated reasoning more than anything else to justify a preconceived belief. In reality, we really don’t know shit yet.

Even if he doesn’t give a shit, though, so what? I don’t call myself a fan of “Phil Brooks” because he’s a good guy who cares about his fans. I call myself a “CM Punk” fan, because I enjoy what he does in the ring and on the mic.

@Pencil-Necked Geek
You learned that lesson from that Growing Pains episode too? Thought I was the only one.

@DoctorCAW
Far as we know, he did. From what I’ve read, Punk’s contract was for a certain number of dates up, after which he merely could’nt wrestle for another company till three months after termination. He did the dates and hasn’t/won’t sign with anyone else. Contract fulfilled.

@Johnny Slider and if that’s the case then my whole argument is moot. It’s certainly possible. I was under the impression he was signed through July 2014, assuming that his available dates were through July, too. In other words 280 days a year per calender year..but again, that’s all speculation on my end.

Yeah, we really don’t know anything about the deal other than he is getting a downside of $1.7 mil a year, a 3.25% merch bonus, has partial creative control, and is signed through July.

We will find out soon enough if he is in legal breach (because of a lack of appearances). Tazz and others are on record saying that it is possible he has fulfilled the number of dates in the contract. We really just don’t know yet.

I just thought of something similar. Maybe we find out that the Shield are “banned” from WM for what they did to Kane, and then they appear in the title match? I mean, they don’t seem to be booked for anything right now, do they?

What the CM Punk apologists fail to realize and conveniently leave out of their argument is that Punk signed a deal. He’s not honoring that deal. I’ve never actually seen a WWE talent contract, but I’m pretty confident in saying that no where in the contract is anyone guaranteed a ‘mania main event (and that might be false, maybe Batista did have it written into his deal, who knows).

While yes, most, if not all of us would leave a job we hated if we could afford it, personally, I’m a big proponent of honoring the deal you signed. Happy or not, Punk signed his deal through July 2014. That means you honor your deal through July of 2014. On August 1st of 2014 you can go and do whatever the hell you want, but up until that point, you signed a deal – honor the deal.

I don’t view Punk as “noble” or anything like it, I view him as a greedy, entitled guy who proved he was only out for himself all along.

I don’t have the info right in front of me– or really know where to find it– but aren’t their *several* instances of Shawn Michaels doing dickish stuff too? Wasn’t that what the ‘losing his smile’ stuff was about? And getting “stripped” of the IC title? What’s your general opinion of (pre- Born Again) Michaels?

@Pencil-Necked Geek totally true. Go back and watch some old PPVs on the Network and any time they had Michaels on commentary he was shitting over everyone. Especially Bret Hart. Especially during the Diesel run.

The WWE Network is going to affect the wrestlers’ PPV payouts/bonuses. The company hasn’t explained how the Network is going to impact that. So Punk could’ve bailed cause he wasn’t getting any answers on that. I don’t know if this is why he left, but I know he expressed concern about it in an interview before the Rumble.

@Pencil-Necked Geek Michaels was a conceited, selfish, entitled prick too. He just got away with a lot more because Vince had literally no one else. I think what you said is fair though – I liked most of CM Punk’s run, but when he stopped caring as a fan I could tell, as a lot of us on here could, that he was mailing it in. At least even then he was still honoring the deal by showing up and going through the motions. Would I prefer a CM Punk who is emotionally invested in his work? Absolutely, but I won’t fault the guy for mailing it in because he was still on the face of it honoring his deal.

@some guy From what I understand, WWE contracts nowadays include at least a downside guarantee. So, for instance, a performer is guaranteed to make at minimum $250K per year, and that includes injury. (Sheamus is on record saying his surgery and rehab was paid in full by WWE and that he was paid according to his deal) beyond that though, I know very little about performer’s contracts. Yes they are classified as 1099s, but they still have a non-compete and a downside guarantee.

@the_nos I buy that, the problem for me still is that he signed a deal! Honor the deal! Negotiate your own network pay-offs into your next deal, if you feel as though you can (and who knows, maybe you’re successful and you set precedent for all the other guys and gals in the back in the process, continuing your theme of being the ‘Voice of the Voiceless’)

None of the wrestling “journalists” (the Meltzers, Kellers, etc) are reporting on anything regarding Network payouts. They’re not even asking questions. They’re basically just advertising the network for free. Wade Keller should be doing features on how WWE plans to pay talent with the launch of the network, CM Punk should be honoring his deal that he signed three years ago.

All of this doesn’t make him a bad guy, but he’s not this hero people are making him out to be. If this were a WR on your favorite NFL team who was holding out during training camp, you might have a different opinion. It’s the same thing here – guy currently signed to a deal is unhappy with his deal and doesn’t want to honor it.

Wouldn’t WWE just sue him if he really didn’t honor a contract? I mean, I don’t know crap about how any of that stuff works, but if you just look how Punk was going on about his matches about a couple of months before his departure, you could already tell that he didn’t give his all and didn’t really wanna be there. I’m pretty sure he just toiled (sort of) away until he fulfilled some clauses (or whatever) in his contract and then left without anything in his contract left to really bind him to perform.

To the honoring a deal part, I say who cares? If I have leverage to get a better deal or have the financial security to be fine if I breach my contract, what incentive do I have to honor a deal if I don’t want to? I do not know the WWE’s practices with employees, but tons of coporations and employers are fucking terrible at “honoring deals”, so why should an employee with tremendous value have to honor his if he doesn’t want to? Cut him a better one if you value him that highly.

@Nippopotamus “what incentive do I have to honor a deal if I don’t want to?” it doesn’t matter if you “want” to honor the deal. You signed a contract. If Tom Brady is signed to a $15 million contract but wants a $25 million deal, he can’t just decide he’s not going to honor the deal he’s in now. David Ortiz is perpetually requesting a new contract, but he honors the original deal he signs. A company doesn’t have to just ‘do the right thing’ because they have a signed deal with their talent. A deal that was agreed to by both parties.

Again, I’ll use my NFL analogy – if a team has a WR on a signed deal and he comes into camp and the teams says “you’re now our third down guy..no more top targets for you” and the player, who has a deal already signed, he can’t just decide he doesn’t want to honor his deal. He can sit out, sure, but he’s not going to see a dime of it, and he’s going to piss off a lot of fans in the process. I think it’s safe to say that if Punk hasn’t honored his entire deal he’s not going to see a dime of even his downside guarantee. Good for him if he can afford it, but it doesn’t make him “right” by any stretch, in my opinion at least.

I’ll use an NFL analogy too. An NFL team agrees to a contract extension with their guaranteed Hall of Fame defensive end. After a year of injuries, they decide he hurts their cap too much. What do they do? They cut him. What about that last year that was promised to him when he signed the extension? Did his team honor it? Hell no they didn’t, they did the thing that was best for business (pun not intended). I guarantee you DeMarcus Ware wanted to play for the Cowboys his entire career. The whole reason why NFL players sit-out and lobby for extensions or front-loaded deals and then another extension so much is because the vast majority of their salary isn’t guaranteed.

Ortiz’ contract on the other hand is guaranteed unless he commits some kind of ridiculous crime and they can void it. It’s the reason why the Yankees kept Kei Igawa in AAA despite knowing he would never pitch in the majors again, they had to since he was owed the money.

Employers do what’s best for business all the time and it’s usually cut-throat merciless shit. I was promised a contract for a year, but it can be voided at any time for almost any reason. The only reason why I honor it is because I get paid well and I need the money. The only reason why my company “honors” our deal because my work makes them more money or has more value than what they pay me. What’s honorable about any of this?

@Nippopotamus I think we’re splitting hairs here at this point. A verbal promise means less in wrestling than in the NFL probably..but I get what you’re saying.

Your reasons for living up to you contract are pretty substantial, wouldn’t you say? The contract is there to give you, at the least, a minimal layer of protection, is it not? Your company may be able to void your contract at any time, but if it’s anything that breaks labor laws I’m sure you would have a case against them – and this isn’t that scenario. All we know is Punk worked Rumble, and left before Raw. He’s also publicly said his contract is through July. To me, and again, this is just my opinion, he’s in breach of contract. I’m not going to champion a guy who simply doesn’t want to do his job.

Like I said, agree to disagree. I’m just on record as saying I don’t agree with, nor do I support CM Punk and the way he went about his business with so little time left on his deal.

I’m in the middle of reading but I saw your note at the bottom of page 3 and had to say, Piper was my first wrestling crush, and Ambrose is my current crush… I’m just glad to know I’m doing it right ;-)

There is a big irrational part of me that hopes on the night of the Hall of Fame Piper gives a passionate induction speech for Mr. T only to bring out the Haiti Kid and beat the shit out him because Piper still HATES Mr. T.

I took Bryan telling Stephanie she hits like a girl as a targetted taunt to get in her head as a direct response to the previous blow up.

It is easy to fill in the details of what her life would be like kayfabe running a wrestling company as a woman considering her family and how male dominated the industry is, so its easy to envisage that being a sore spot for her and playing in to her desire for respect.

Personally, I was hoping that after Bryan said it the first time that she would straight up right hook him. But her reaction of basically not giving a shit because she was in complete control was great too

This week’s Raw has added fuel to my theory that the Stephanie McMahon on TV is the Cersei Lannister of WWE. She feels like she is the natural heir to the WWE empire after her father but is insecure due to the fact that she happened to be born female. What she doesn’t realize is that people don’t respect her because she’s a crappy boss, not because she’s a woman.

Now I’m picturing Daniel Bryan rummaging through a McMahon family lineage book and realizing that all of Stephanie’s daughters have dark hair like their father… Shane! (I know that’s not true and that all the girls are blonde with that Levesque beak, but it’d be a fun storyline)

Best: Getting a top ten comment
Worst: Having the top ten comment have a giant fucking typo in the middle of it.
Seriously though, if Bryan wins against HHH, wouldn’t it be rad if there was a backstage segment before the main event where DBry stops the AV guy and hands him a CD and says Countdown?

Actually, part of me (and this ABSOLUTE DREAM BOOKING HERE) hopes we cut to DBry prior to the HHH match and he walks past Hogan, Rock and Austin (and Warrior, if you need to include an HOFer) and they all essentially give him the “go get ’em, kid” look, like they all understand he’s got what it takes to be a champion.

So I don’t know if anybody else pays attention to the rumor mill, but Vince is supposedly coming back sometime in the near future, but on Daniel Bryan’s side??? The logical part of my brain nearly imploded upon reading that, because didn’t VKM basically shit on DBry the last time they were in the ring together?

The ONLY way I could see McMahon “siding” with Bryan is by trying to offer Triple H advice. Like: Hey, I wasted years trying to ruin Stone Cold Steve Austin, thinking it was “best for business,” but in the end he really was best for business. But Triple H being Triple H, he can’t let it go. So there.

I can’t help but think they are setting this up like the Foley title win. Bryan is fighting the odds, and he is losing, then The Shield comes down to help him, then heels come down to fight the Shield, then, with seemingly no other help, Cult Of Personality hits, and Punk comes down, GTS’s mofos left and right, and pulls DBry on top of Orton for the win. You may bitch about the shmozz finish, but I will mark out like a ten-year-old.

Brandon, serious question: Has is your projecting of shitty motives to Punk’s departure and then showing up on Talking Dead ANY different than the guy’s fans projecting “Oh, he looks relaxed and happy” to him on the show? Do you have any inside info on the situation that you’re not telling us? (Being a ring announcer for an indie fed and getting Goldust to act in the movie you wrote doesn’t count, by the way.)

I just realized that if Bryan wins against Triple H, and heads to the main event match, that at some point, HHH is going to come back out and, united with Batista and Orton, attempt to dismantle the Dragon. All well and good, but wouldn’t that be the most perfect moment to fully cement The Shield’s face-turn with them also coming to attack all three men, chase Triple H out and give Bryan the edge against either Batista or Orton? I mean, they helped him from losing through interference, so it wouldn’t the worst dirty win ever. Plus, The Shield can finally say they did something for justice, and have it actually be just. That’s sort of the beauty of these guys. Aside from the fact that the WWE probably knows how awesome these guys are together, they don’t have to excessively pander or talk about how “they’re here for every single one of you tonight;” all they need to do is ACTUALLY support true justice for those who deserve it. Bryan, a guy getting punked left and right, and others like him. They can be the underground force that aids those harassed and oppressed by those in power. Predictably, they’ll be “fired” for helping Bryan at ‘Mania, but that’s how they become The Underground! Sabotaging The Authority while Bryan begins his run at the top. Perhaps that could also be the perfect time to paint Cena as the status-quo that we all know he is. He’s not in favor of justice, and he’ll pay for that shit son.

First of all, I loved that little “You’re not even real cops anyway” line, precisely because it worked on both the in-universe and out-of-universe contexts. The people who don’t know are confused, and then HHH starts in on Bryan and they go OH THAT FIEND, and the rest of us nerds go, “Did he lean on the four-OH THAT WAS BRILLIANT”

Being technically correct is the BEST kind of correct, just saying.

Also, I think I know why Brandon’s suddenly gone heel: it’s not really HHH, but how terribly WWE’s been writing faces that finally broke him. When Ziggler was fighting Jericho and used some of the similar stuff that Bray is using now, he was TECHNICALLY CORRECT but being a dick about it. Jericho effectively responded with, “Nuh uh, you’re hair’s STUPID!” and got cheered. Bray Wyatt literally has the guy John Cena may eventually become to use as visual aid, and John Cena does his John Cena thing and gets cheered for it. HHH becomes this living embodiment of everything Brandon hates about the WWE and HHH, and in doing so, he and Stephanie become the most compelling super-villains ever. Daniel Bryan gets Rick the Sign Guy and a bunch of us Internet Wrestling Nerds to stand in the ring and annoy everyone who paid money to see wrestling, and gets cheered for it.

That being said, I’m more than a little concerned that Brandon’s favorite part of the last skit was HHH beating the everloving dogshit out of Bryan for 15 minutes. I know HHH is firing on more than all of his cylinders, but it’s still kind of weird that HHH took away most of Bryan’s ability to defend himself, got him beat up by a bunch of paid-off indie wrestlers, then beat him up too, then chair-shotted him. It became one of those, “STOP HE’S ALREADY DEAD” things.